This panel examines ways that women have historically employed articles of clothing and manners of grooming as symbols in feminist campaigns for social change. Because these campaigns often employed media spectacle, their symbolism is of interest to media historians. Examining 19th-century Dress Reform, early 20th-century suffrage garb, hairstyles across several eras, pants in the 1970s, and finally 21st-century “pussy hats,” panelists will discuss themes such as the disruption of gendered expectations (i.e. pants as naturally “male”), the use of traditionally feminine skills (sewing and knitting) to undermine and reframe symbolic oppression, feminist use of media and the news media’s treatment of them.

Moderator: Erika Pribanic-Smith, University of Texas-Arlington

Caryl Cooper, University of Alabama
Brooke Kroeger, New York University
Jane Marcellus, Middle Tennessee State University
Kimberly Wilmot Voss, University of Central Florida